


When Darkness Becomes a Shadow

by lonlygnome



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: M/M, Song fic, Trust Issues, imagine dragons, mind space
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-20
Updated: 2013-10-20
Packaged: 2017-12-29 22:35:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1010923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lonlygnome/pseuds/lonlygnome
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maybe in each other they can find a light. That is, if Scotty can find himself to lay that trust in Leo.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When Darkness Becomes a Shadow

**Author's Note:**

> Don't own trek.
> 
> Based on Demons by Imagine Dragons

Don't want to let you down  
But I am hell bound  
Though this is all for you  
Don't want to hide the truth  
\---  
Your eyes, they shine so bright  
I want to save that light  
I can't escape this now  
Unless you show me how

\----------------------------------

From the moment Scotty lands on the bridge he gets the sense that at least half the crew are haunted. By what he doesn’t know, but there’s a general sense of unease. More than should be attributed to his and their Captains sudden reappearance.

In the end it’s the Doctor who brings him a towel, towing it along with a tricorder to check up on him quickly before dashing off to arguing the Captain away from an idea. Scotty’s yet to catch names besides that of Kirk and the man he pinpoints to be the ‘newer’ Spock. It’s kind of hard not to notice the similarities. With Kirk back in the captain’s chair where he looks uncomfortably at home Scotty is whisked away to start what Kirk calls a ‘final promotion’. There’s no way this is going to last. Scotty knows that. There’s no that it can. He’s lucky ever to have gotten off Delta Vega and as soon as they return to Earth he’s going straight back out there. Nothing anyone can do about it. So he focuses on the lady he’s gotten for a brief period of time. Focuses on enjoying an accomplishment that would prove many a person wrong. So maybe it’s not as nice in some regards as Delta Vega, he doesn’t have that one person he can trust completely, but there are four walls, a heater, and considerable amount of good scotch.

A few days from having his feet back on solid Earth soil in nearly eight months and Scotty’s already packing. Not that he brought much with him but for a spaceship he’s collected a surprising amount of random things. He’s moving to throw a few things in the trash when he hears the door start to slide open. He’s been avoiding his physical after the whole encounter and from stories from the crew the appearance of the Doctor as he turns around doesn’t surprise him.

“Mr. Scott.”   
“Call me Scotty.”   
“You never showed up.”  
“No sir.”   
“I hear you got hit by a beam.”   
“Maybe…”   
“This had better not become a regular thing.”   
“It won’t sir.”

Scotty catches a slight hint of ‘that had better not mean what I think it will’ from the tone of his voice in the Doctor’s eyes and he turns away. “I’m fine sir. Jus’ go’ a few bruises, go away soon ‘nough on their own.”

“You’re pretty calm about this,” said the man in his southern drawl, “Most people would be runin’ to me to get their smallest injuries fixed. And stop calling me sir would you? It’s either Doc or McCoy, just stop with the damn sir stuff.”

Scotty shrugged slightly, “I’m use’ ta dealin’ wi’h i’ si… Doc. I’s no’ like Del’a Vega had very curren’ medical.”

\--------------------

He’s back on the ship! He’s not entirely sure how that happened but Scotty’s going to roll with it. A few more months at least with his silver lady would probably pay for whatever hell would come out of it the other end. He spends the days before they go back into the stars wandering the halls and getting to know her. Avoiding the crew at almost all costs he focuses on the ship. The ship he can keep with him. Not guaranteed with the people around him.

He stumbles upon McCoy grumbling about ensigns moving medical equipment and wishing for some bourbon not long after convincing Kirk to collect Keesner from the base. That’s been about the extent of his interactions with anyone but the slight gleam he saw in McCoy when he was doing his job, and the gruff way he dealt with everything, seemed like a possibility almost too close to good to give a zero on.

“I may er may no’ have stashe’ some away in engineerin’ if yer wan’in’ an escape a’ some poin’ doc,” he says in passing as he walks by, not pausing to wait for his reaction. He knew it was dark and that he’d be casting a shadow.

\---------------

One way or another they ended up drinking buddies. Scotty complaining about the Captain’s reckless treatment of the ship whenever he was in medbay for one injury or another and McCoy trying to defend the man then falling into a grumble about number of patients in agreement was probably a factor. The man’s gruffness gave Scotty something besides the drink or equations to relax with. The longer they chatted, sitting on a walkway in engineering with their legs dangling off and a bottle between them, the less Scotty found himself drinking. Some days the drinking would go up suddenly and McCoy would send him strange looks, but something’s even a drunk man woun’t reveal.

It was a few encounters later that Scotty realized that Leonard was suspecting something. There were only so many times one could be gone over with a tricorder before the un-treated, mended bones, scars from more than engineering, would show more distinctly. Only so much time before theories were made.

Scotty was in getting treated for some minor burns on his arms when McCoy asked nonchalantly about a scar wrapping around the base of Scotty’s thumb. Scotty froze. How much was McCoy thinking? Seeing the man’s eyes cloud over slightly as it took him time to answer Scotty took a breath and replied softly, “Car crash,” as though it were truth. It’s not like pulling false-truths out of thin air wasn’t something he was accustomed to. It’s not like he hadn’t been in car crashes that may have left that scar. They’d left plenty of others.

\---------------

After that Scotty started to withdraw, finding more and more reasons to avoid drinking with McCoy. He’d find random repairs to work on, purposefully off set their shifts so they simply did not have time. The doctor was smart, he’d notice sooner or later, but Scotty hoped it was long enough for him to be getting off the ship. He wasn’t ready to look the man in the eyes.

\-----------------

There was a message awaiting him on his PADD when Scotty came out of the shower. A quick glance at the sender and Scotty was pushing it further onto the bed as he finished his ritual and poured himself a glass of scotch before lying down beside it. He took a deep breath and picked it up to remove the message only to see more coming in. Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes for a moment Scotty finally opened one, a small smile cracking as he read the first few lines.

[Message] I know you’re ignoring these. I’ll just keep sending them. I’m not daft man! I know you’re avoiding me. Scotty huffed lightly before continuing, Why I don’t understand but dammit man, what the hell is going on?

That question caused him to pause and take a few moments to collect himself. There was still more in the message. ‘He knows, he knows’ kept reverberating through Scotty’s mind and he tried to calm himself, tell himself that there was a difference between theories and knowledge. 

[Message] The scars of yours tell a story. What of I’m not sure. Maybe I’ve got some thoughts but I don’t give a damn. It’s your fuckin’ story. Hell if I give a damn. Clearly it’s affecting you but dammit, I miss my drinking partner. So man up and talk to me or keep acting like it’s all nothing. Don’t leave me hanging here. [END]

Fingers hanging above the delete button Scotty closed his eyes and rested his head back against the headboard. Fuck, he wasn’t wrong. Leo did know something. Sure what was up for debate and theories were just theories but that didn’t change that they were his own demons. There was a reason he kept them deep inside.

[Message] It’s for your own good. – Scotty

\-----------------

Scotty knew he wouldn’t be able to avoid the man forever. Hell, the man had become the sole care provider for a good portion of the commanding crew, Scotty was no different. If he’d wanted to Scotty could have changed it but that would have demanded giving an explanation and placing his trust in someone else. He wasn’t ready for that.

Months went by with Scotty ducking down a hallway when he saw McCoy coming, avoiding medbay as long as possible for injuries and slipping in when McCoy was off shift, trying to figure out how to get a transfer with the least number of explanations. Then SOME ALIEN IN ST happened. No way he was avoiding medbay with his arm popped out of his socket and multiple people having seen it happen. He knew how to fix that, but it didn’t look like he was getting a choice in having McCoy do it for him.

The medbay was McCoy’s normal cool bedside manner. What was lacking was the normal banter they’d developed, the general jabs they’d make at each other and the Captain. Once the shoulder was back in place and McCoy had clearly removed him from working for two shifts Scotty was hoping to escape the awkward interactions and the looks some nurses were pointedly sending them. Not going to happen. As he slid off the biobed McCoy walked past again and grabbed by the shoulder, forcing him into the Doc’s office.

Forcing the engineer into a seat as the door slid shut McCoy grabbed his ‘medicinal’ bourbon out of a cabinet and poured a few glasses. “Talk,” he stated coldly, setting one in front of the Scott.

\------------------

Scotty let out an anxious breath as he stood outside McCoy’s quarters, one hand pressed against the wall while the other hung loosely over the handle. Was he actually doing this? Hell, he trusted the man, but there was still the darkness.

The door hissed open as Scotty turned to walk away, Leo coming out just far enough to grab Scotty by the shoulder and pull him into the quarters. Turning the Scotsman around Leo held him by the shoulders and looked him square in the eye, “I know why you were walkin’ away. Dammit man, I’m not the fuckin’ light you’re treating me as. I get it alright?”

Leo’s abruptness caused Scotty to pause for a moment. They’d discussed this before, both of them were broken. But hell, Scotty still wasn’t ready to show his soul to the man. Yet after a moment he took a deep breath and moved in, pulling the other man into a hug, and letting himself be wrapped in McCoy’s shadow.

Maybe they could lighten their darkness with the light they saw in the other. Maybe they could illuminate the other just enough that they wouldn’t drown in their own night.


End file.
